Brendan Schaub believes UFC 313 pay-per-view issues done ‘on purpose’ by ESPN

Former UFC heavyweight fighter Brendan Schaub was one of the many, many people who had issues watching the main card of UFC 313 on ESPN+.

During Saturday’s pay-per-view broadcast, which was capped off by Magomed Ankalaev’s title win over Alex Pereira, countless fighters — both past and present — fans, media members, and more were outraged that they ordered and paid for the main card, but streaming issues left them unable to watch it. UFC executives were “furious” over the situation, while ESPN issued an apology in a statement sent to MMA Fighting about the problems with ordering and watching UFC 313.

‘Unfortunately, we experienced a technical issue that impacted purchases of the UFC PPV on ESPN+ shortly after 10pm ET,” ESPN said in the statement. “Our teams identified and resolved the issue, restoring full functionality ahead of the main event. We apologize for the inconvenience and are taking steps to ensure a better experience in the future.’

While ESPN offered up the main card for free on Sunday for ESPN+ subscribers, it still left a bad taste in people’s mouths, including Schaub. On his podcast, Schaub doesn’t believe it was a technical issue, but a negotiation tactic due to the UFC’s broadcast rights deal being negotiated.

“The whole ESPN+, the pay-per-view not working, they’re [in negotiations for their broadcast] rights right now, if you think that wasn’t on purpose, you’re out of your mind,” Schaub said. “That’s ESPN, who doesn’t give a flying f*ck about the UFC, really. They’re in turmoil. But if you don’t think that’s a flex from them... I’ve never had issues with them, now all of a sudden during [rights negotiations], issues just pop up?

“That’s someone going, ‘Oh, really, you want to play hard ball? This is what your numbers will look like without us.’”

Schaub doesn’t know what’s going on for sure, and it would clearly seem like a pretty bad tactic from ESPN if they want to keep the UFC as part of their portfolio — especially with the ever-growing popularity of the brand.

But after having issues with the platform for the first time, Schaub just feels the timing of it seems way too coincidental.

“That’s what I think [with a] tinfoil hat on,” Schaub said. “Never had issues. All of a sudden, half the f*cking world has issues? That’s weird. During negotiations? That’s weird.”

While Schaub apparently never had problems with the UFC streaming on ESPN+, this is far from the first time issues have popped up during the nearly seven-year long relationship between the two companies.

Add to that as part of the overall broadcast deal, ESPN pays the UFC for every pay-per-view broadcast no matter how many sales actually happen so purposefully creating technical issues would actually cost the Disney-owned brand more money with nothing in return.